Jon Stewart roasts Fox’s hypocrisy: You only love freedom when it’s ‘administered by a dictator’

Daily Show host Jon Stewart opened the program on Tuesday by mocking Fox News’ mooning over King Abdullah II of Jordan and other leaders for the sake of scoring potshots against President Barack Obama.

“Apparently you love freedom — you just wish it was being administered in this country by a dictator,” Stewart argued. “It’s kind of ironic, because if President Obama started acting like any of the guys whose leadership you admire, I’m pretty sure I know the first place he’d shut down.”

Fox commentators, Stewart noted, have been eager to compare the Jordanian king to Clint Eastwood after his vow to wipe out the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group — while ignoring their own graphics showing that the U.S. has carried out 80 percent of the air strikes against ISIS.

“What the right is saying is, why can’t Obama be more like this powerful Muslim king?” Stewart explained. “Which is weird, because if I may say, that’s also been their biggest complaint about Obama.”

The round of right-wing praise for King Abdullah, Stewart said, came on the heels of Fox gushing over Russian President Vladimir Putin and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) complaining on the House floor that he wished U.S. leaders had the “courage” of Obama’s Egyptian counterpart, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

“If I’m understanding this correctly — and I think I am — the paragons of leadership are a king, military dictator and a power-crazed wanna-be czar,” Stewart observed. “Seems kind of at odds with the one thing you guys claim to value the most.”

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Arturo R. García is the managing editor at Racialicious.com. He is based in San Diego, California and has written for both print and broadcast media, including contributions to GlobalComment.com, The Root and Comment Is Free. Follow him on Twitter at @ABoyNamedArt